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 Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2024 10:29 am
Yeah I think he just gives her a “what did I do?!” And asks if she is doing alright when Ming leaves.
“The boys errr…boy and boy girl…ain’t driving you crazy?”
"Oh, they're definitely driving me crazy. But... I'm alright. How... are you?" They probably start walking along the beach a bit.
“That’s good,” he gives her that Levi smile, “and I’m…well…happy to be able to see you. The lizard is hell bent on revenge-so he didn’t want me handling your lizard drama myself…now I’m off trying to make things easier to break both your curses… except the ******** said it was so important and then left and now I’m the one doing all the work…sigh”
Levi leans back a little and looks up.
"The lizard? Lizard drama? Who left? I am so confused!"
“Mephitis…sorry, I call all dragons ‘lizards’ because-well…because I’m an a*****e.”
“No surprise there right?”
Aella tilted her head at him and disapproved in his direction again. "I know very well that you aren't an a*****e."
“You are sure about that?” He smirks at her, “I am the Devil, I am the world’s icon of everything bad, after all”
Aella tilts her head at him. "Well, I have two lifetimes of Levi in my head, I think I'm a pretty good judge by now."
“Oh? Well maybe I should step up my game. Being an a*****e is a whole part of my irresistible charm.” He jokes, “point is, I was gonna lift both your curses but Mephitis wanted his hand in it so he could get his revenge on the god that did you two dirty…and after I agreed the first thing he does is leave to do whatever he needed to do. Now I’m looking for the things that make it easier on his conscience. So the boys are driving me crazy too I guess. That’s honestly all I’m up to….”
Aella stopped walking and paused, putting a hand on Levi's arm to stop him and gain his attention. It was a bit awkward considering their most recent encounter but given some of her past memories, she could get past that awkwardness. "Levi... it's not your job to take care of that." More importantly, TF was Mephitis up to?!
Levi slowed to a halt when she grabbed his arm, looking at her hand briefly before meeting her eyes with his blue and green one. He sighed for a moment before speaking, already anticipating some push back. Unlike her, he wasn’t feeling awkward…more…sad. His impression of their last encounter left him somber… the fact that he was dying only fueling that somber feeling. “You’re right. It’s not my job…but it’s what I want to do. The reality of the situation is that you are likely going to catch a lot of attention from…a lot of people.” Levi shrugged, “and there are going to be moments where I can’t help, moments where you gotta step up…but while my old stubborn a** is still breathing, imma take some of the weight off your shoulders and give you a little peace in your life.”
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2024 10:37 am
 Aella stood on the sandy beach, the gentle waves lapping at her feet, the salty breeze playing with her snowy white hair, catching the fading rays of the sunset. The sky was a brilliant canvas of oranges, pinks, and purples, mirroring the warmth she felt deep within despite the heaviness of the moment. She took a breath, her heart pounding as she met Levi's gaze, the mixture of blue and green in his eyes reflecting the colors of the ocean. “Levi,” she began, her voice soft but steady, “I understand your desire to protect me, but… I want you to know something.”
The warmth of the setting sun bathed her in a golden light, highlighting the contours of her face, her lips trembling slightly as she fought against the weight of her emotions. “In my past life, I loved you. I never told you, and I’m sorry for that, but I did. Trading my life for yours was so you could find someone else to love and make a life. I wanted you to be happy, not just a shadow watching out for me, endlessly giving without ever receiving.”
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Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2024 10:27 pm
Levi expected some kind of resistance. He expected a emotional narrative that would pull on his heart strings, beckoning him to take her side. It most definetly wouldn't have been the first time-in this life or the ones before. But what Aella said to him was so far from the anticipated rebuttal...so much so that the calm and cool visage that made the human incubus god so irresistible shatter. "What?..." the man's brow began to twitch. For years....no...for realities that had begun and ended while he breathed...for existences that he outlived against the natural order of life and death...all that time he had accepted that he was in love with someone who cared for him, but never loved. He had come to terms with it...and come to terms with the fact that it would not have affected his choices because he loved her-more than he loved anything. She was more precious than any treasure he had scoured, she was more intoxicating than any drink or drug, she was craved more than anything he had ever craved during a starved appetite of any sort. She made him feel like he could be saved...that he was more than just some criminal...some selfish narcissist. But she didn't love him...and he had to come to terms with that over his entire life....which is what made this hurt so god damn bad. "That...That's not funny Aella." He chocked out through an ugly sob as tears began to bleed from his trembling features. the tension in his face hinted on how much he was trying to clutch onto his infamous cool persona...but it was impossible.
~I want you to live...~
her voice rang in his ear...words followed by her just...fading out of his life forever. Permanently, out of reach no matter how hard he struggled against the laws of existence. No magic could bring her back, no dominion over time could return them back to when things where simple and beautiful...even when he stood at the pinnacle of divinity, ascending to an omniarch for that brief moment, even then he couldn't draw from the past and pull the Aella he knew from whatever fate followed her death; Yes, he had tried! because he was selfish and in love! if she loved him back why would she leave him like that!? Why would she think it so easy for him to just move on and find something with another person like she was nothing more than a booty call or something!? What the actual ******** was trembling...four letters unraveling all the prideful armor that made him a source of envy for the gods of this realm. Aella had found levi's weakness...or perhaps...she always knew what it was...
Aella’s heart clenched as she watched Levi's cool, collected exterior crumble before her, his sobs raw and jagged, cutting through the air like broken glass. Each sound he made felt like a blade twisting in her chest, the weight of his pain suffocating. She hadn’t anticipated this—this absolute unraveling of the man who once seemed unshakable. Her own words, which she’d hoped might ease his burden, had instead shattered him like a delicate vase dropped from too high a ledge.
The salty breeze, once soothing, now lashed against her skin, cold and biting. It whipped through her snowy white hair, tangling it around her face like strands of silk caught in a storm, shimmering under the fading sunlight- the sky's colors too vivid for such a broken moment. Her fingers twitched uselessly at her sides, aching to reach out but frozen in fear of making everything worse. The way Levi trembled, the sobs wracking his body, tore at something deep inside her. His pride, the calm and calculated charm he so often exuded, had crumbled completely, leaving nothing but raw vulnerability. Aella could see it in the way his shoulders slumped, his hands clenching as if trying to hold onto the last fragments of control. She could feel it in the air between them—thick, heavy with the weight of unspoken things.
Her breath hitched painfully and her chest tightening with every inhale, guilt rising in waves so fierce they nearly knocked her off her feet. His words, “That’s not funny,” echoed through her mind like a relentless, broken record, repeating over and over, twisting the knife deeper. She had wanted to give him peace, but instead, she’d brought him to his knees. Beneath her feet the sand felt soft, grounding her as she took a tentative step forward. She wished to somehow reach out and soothe the wound she had reopened, but every instinct warned her she might only deepen the hurt. Instead her hands stopped halfway, hovering uselessly around him as if a bubble prevented her from getting any closer.
“It wasn’t a joke,” she whispered, her voice barely audible, fragile as sea foam. Her throat tightened, and she swallowed hard, trying to keep her composure as her eyes stung with the threat of tears.While Aella became acutely aware -painfully so in some cases- to her surrounds as the guilt began to coil and constrict around her heart… Levi was the opposite. The sand, despite being physically there, felt as if it had fallen beneath him…leaving no single grain to support him. There he floated in this state of hyper focus, searching Aella’s eyes…her body language…anything that could convince him that this was some kind of cruel manipulation. If it was, it could be forgiven simply because the possibility of being coerced into something on that lie was far more sparring than the truth that was being delivered. In this momentary stagnation; Levi couldn’t enjoy the subtle scent of the ocean or the gentle breeze kissing his skin…instead he felt like he had been swept adrift into a void of anticipation as he searched for something he could latch onto: lie…or truth.
Sadly, the guilt he saw through the windows of Aella’s glacial blue eyes spoke to the worst possible scenario. No… he mouthed the word, the sound stolen from his very lungs as the air around him came impossible thick. A crushing gravity suddenly invaded this floating feeling, his legs trembling under the encroaching truth in her words. No… he mouthed again as she carefully approached him, his head shaking slightly. He wanted to shield himself from this, he wanted to run…wanted to hide…but his body simply couldn’t ******** move. Move Damnit! Get the ******** out of here! Pretend I’m never ******** happened and be normal again! Yet he couldn’t.
“It wasn’t a joke,”
Those words…so delicate…so faint…slammed into him like a titanic force…opening old wounds and even making them bleed with more emotion than they ever had in his past. Suddenly he was thrust back in the moments where he had been brought back to life…too weak to do anything but watch the woman he loved fade away into the either with no soul to chase over the lifetimes he had existed. And then…Levi collapsed, falling through the tentative open arms that never found him. His right knee sank into the sand first, his right hand pelting the beach first before his left knee his the ground…more weakly than the first. Soon he was just looking down…hiding his features from her…both hands and knees in the sand. Droplets if moisture frequently pelted the sand, some getting swept away from the tide that brushed over his sunken form before ebbing away. “******** damnit…” his body trembled with a horrid mixture of anguish and anger. His finger closed in on themselves, sand being pushed from the gaps between as his fists dug into the beach. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” he said lowly…not to her…but to someone who hadn’t been able to hear him for a long time now.
—————-
“Listen Aella,” Levi said solemnly…looking out to the stars in the main cockpit of a colossal space ship. “I want to apologize…and don’t make it a habit of expecting more apologies from me in the future…but I’m sorry. I…honestly I wish I could be more-for you I mean. I thought I was at the peak of all things…but with all this…s**t…I…I realize I’m not. I’m not strong, I’m weak and irrelevant. I’m not confident, I’m scared and nervous. I’m not at all as great as I say I am because…because I can’t stop you from doing this. I am forced to stand beside you-….no…behind you because I am just not enough. I wish I could give you more. Wish I could let you go back to Rengoku, ride your bike, drift without a ******** care in the world on lord fontleroy….but I can’t…I am nothing…and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for lying all this time saying…PREACHING that I’m actually something special when I’m just…Levi…”
The only lie he had told his peers…lacerating his heart until nothing remained. Levi didn’t have the answer to everything, couldn’t get himself impossibly out of any problem or issue with clever ease, couldn’t breeze through any trial and tribulation unfazed…he was just Levi…half human boy…raised by parents not present…stolen by pirates…he was nothing special in the slightest.
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Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2024 9:31 pm
Aella stood frozen for what felt like an eternity, her breath caught in her throat as she watched Levi collapse under the weight of his anguish. The strength drained from him as if the very ground had betrayed him, pulling him down to his knees. The sight of him trembling, the way his fingers clawed at the sand as if trying to anchor himself, shattered something deep inside her. His anguish was so raw, so overwhelming, it left her feeling helpless. The sharp angles of his face, usually so composed and strong, now contorted with despair, twisted her heart into knots. She didn’t know how to comfort him—she never had. But leaving him like this, broken and alone, was something she couldn’t bear to imagine.
The air between them felt thick with unspoken emotion, heavier than the ocean breeze that tugged at her hair, sending strands swirling around her face like a curtain of silk. Her throat tightened, and her mind scrambled for words that wouldn’t come, each attempt slipping away like grains of sand through her fingers. The usual cold clarity that guided her was gone, replaced by a dull ache of confusion and guilt. What do I do?
With a quiet, steady breath, Aella knelt down in front of Levi, the cool sand sinking beneath her knees and accentuating her petite frame. She was small, her delicate figure almost dwarfed by Levi's muscular form, his broad shoulders and powerful build a stark contrast to her slender curves and fragile stature. Hesitantly, she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around him in a gentle embrace, drawing him close as if she could shield him from the pain that had driven him to his knees.
Her movements felt unsure, awkward even, as if this act of comfort was a foreign language she was still learning. Aella cradled his head against her shoulder, her soft, pale skin glowing in the dim light, while his strong, weathered features pressed into her, a mix of warmth and sorrow. The contrast was striking—her slight frame enveloping him like a whisper. As she moved, she could feel the tension in his muscles beneath her touch, the way his body trembled subtly against hers, resonating with the heartache he couldn’t contain. The warmth of his breath brushed against her neck, mingling with the soft whispers of the ocean waves nearby, their rhythmic lullaby both soothing and melancholic. Aella brushed her slender fingers through his soft blonde hair, fingertips gliding over the silky strands, as if she could somehow weave away his pain with with each delicate stroke, a fragile gesture she hoped would feel comforting if nothing else.
Levi’s anguish was wild, bleeding with broken emotion that he couldn’t possibly contain. He hated this feeling…abhorred it. While his body felt weak and drained, his mind and heart thrashed against the truth that had had the power to rip open every scar on his soul that had failed to drag him to the grave throughout his life. This news wasn’t bittersweet…he couldn’t appreciate the fact that the woman he loved had the same feelings for him…no…she was gone. He had been enthralled with this dream of doing something good for once in his life. Looking back on it all, he couldn’t chase away the thought that he could have discarded all that and basked in the glow of his past lover until all the lights faded around him. Perhaps he could have heard those three words gifted to him like priceless treasures rolling off of her lips if he had just stayed in Cancun. But no…it was his fault…he had dragged her with him…and invited her to her grave himself because he was enticed by that little bit of altruism. And what did he have to gain from that? He most certainly wasn’t a hero-he didn’t feel anything like the sort; He was barely a survivor. He had not the enchanting luxury of coming home to the one he cherished with the peace and time to relish in the way she could breathe life into the emptiness within him after the battle. No…he had nothing but heartache, anger, and a shattered mind to show for it because he wasn’t even close to being strong enough to keep her.
If only he was different…if only he was special… if only he wasn’t a fool.
Suddenly something invited itself into the void of misery, and Levi could feel lithe arms taking in his shuddering form into a gentle embrace. His breath hitched between the uncontrollable sobs, almost like her comforting gesture had spooked him out of his agonous thoughts. That’s right…he wasn’t alone was he? Aella had taken him, crumbled and helpless, and coddled him as he weathered a losing battle against his demons. Heterochromatic eyes, wide with surprise as she did this, began to fall back into something distant…and…he sank into her. Her presence dared to piece together the shattered remains of a man she knew so well, but was a stranger nonetheless. And, in a way, it worked. It didn’t spare him from the pain, but it did draw his conscience out of the bitter reflection of his past decisions. His hands slowly…lifted from the sand, grains of the sediment both clinging to his fingers and falling from them as they shakily hovered closer to Aella’s back…to hold her, but they never quite made it. This was partially because of a sudden realization that he made with the clarity her comfort allowed him: This iteration of Aella…was living and breathing proof of his past inabilities.
The realization tempted his thoughts back into the abyss of depression…but he did not take the bait. Instead, his anguish ignited because of it. Yes…anguish. It wasn’t despair-that would have left him empty and hopeless…no…anguish had the flexibility to be a muse for action. Only then…did his hands finally cross the gap between them…and he held her as he endured final vestiges of sadness before they evolved into something more…The thing with Levi…was that he never simply surrendered. He fought and chased death away as realities fell, he struggled against his lack of power until he seized so much that it had gods cowering before him. That was just who he was, since the day he was born. It was the reason he couldn’t so easily give up on his ambition to make a difference either. He had to fight…He was born to fight… It wasn’t that he was born brave…nor was he born strong…he was just born with grit, fire, and steel in his blood. That was what the universe had planned for him. It didn’t matter if he was dying…or that this new Omniarch had marked him for death at the very instant he used the crafted divine nucleus to save Aella…no, not one bit. He would show all the enemies of this girl that they contended with him…and even when his cosmic mettle would face trial after trial for her…he would not yield. They would all realize the reckoning of Levi Mother ******** Pierce till his final breath was drawn from his lungs.
Soon the time between his cries became longer and more infrequent…until his voice and body became still in her arms. “Aella,” his faint voice washed over the side of her neck, “I let you live your life as you really want; I know better than to do otherwise. So…please…let me live the way I really want to.” His words, although shaky, had a firm resolve that clashed against what she was trying to have him do. If he was to die as her aid…then that is how it would be…and if he did not come out alive then he would ensure that her enemy’s wounds ached and twisted every time their mind drifted to his name..and name carved into the memory. This…Watcher…would feel the reckoning of a man who blamed its entire species for his past…
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Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 3:31 pm
Aella wished she could make it better. The helplessness gnawed at her, a heavy, sick feeling that settled deep in her chest. It was a sensation she despised—this inability to fix things. Sob stories were something she avoided for a reason. They never brought resolution, only heartache, reminding her of how powerless she could be. Like now, watching Levi unravel before her, torn open by wounds she couldn’t see, couldn’t heal. She sifted through the scattered fragments of her memories, trying to recall any bit of conversation, any shared moment from their past that might offer a clue to his pain. But it was futile. The glimpses she had of their history were too fragmented, blurry snapshots of a life her former self had lived with him. It wasn’t enough to piece together the whole picture, only enough to make her heart clench at the sight of him like this.
The warmth of Levi’s body trembled against hers, his sobs muffled by her shoulder as the sun dipped lower, painting the sky in fiery shades of orange and gold. Long shadows were cast across the beach, the waves crashing softly in a rhythmic lull that accompanied the raw emotion spilling from him. She felt the vibration of each cry against her chest, his pain manifesting in every tremor of his body as she held him tightly, the only thing she could offer in the face of his anguish.
As the light faded, they became but silhouettes against the dying sunset. His cries began to fade, the sound quieting into the hush of the ocean. His body eventually stilled, the aftermath of heartache leaving him numb. She felt his breath, hot and uneven against the side of her neck as he pulled back slightly, though her grip on him remained. His words, whispered against her skin, sent a ripple of unease through her. He seemed better—calmer at least—but the weight of his resolve still unsettled her. She knew him too well, knew that once Levi set his mind to something, there was no changing it.
The breeze, salty and cool, tugged at Aella’s hair, wrapping stray strands around her face, sticking to the dampness of her skin. The evening air was growing colder now, a chill creeping in as the warmth of the day faded, though Levi’s body remained a steady source of heat against hers. Her slender fingers moved through his hair, the silky strands slipping between them, a repetitive motion she clung to in the absence of words. She tasted salt on her lips, the faint metallic hint of blood from where she had bitten down too hard.
For a long moment, Aella continued to say nothing, simply holding him close, her hand continuing its soothing rhythm through his hair. There was nothing left to say—nothing that could sway him or ease her own doubts. His decision was made, and she knew better than to try and stop him. At last, after what felt like hours, she spoke, her voice soft, barely more than a breath carried on the evening wind.
“Alright,” she murmured, the words fragile but resolute, her breath warm against his ear. “I won’t stop you if you’ve made up your mind…” Her hands rested gently on his shoulders, feeling the tension still coiled beneath his skin. The sadness in her voice illuminated the bittersweet acceptance she wasn’t ready for but had no choice but to give.
She wouldn’t stop him… her words caused his body to hitch, his muscles coiling with tension in that fleeting moment as if bracing for impact. And yet…it did very little to dull the pain that followed. It hurt… it hurt like ******** hell. It felt as if some sick b*****d had ripped his still beating heart straight from his chest and ran it through a ******** cheese grater with ever syllable of her somber acceptance. ********! Happiness just had to be so god damn elusive after he chose to be a hero didnt it?…and yet…despite all of this emotional turmoil…he wouldn’t change a single thing.
He had told himself not to get close to her. He had argued in the mirror with himself, preaching the inevitability of the dismal pathos that would follow if he did…but these moments with her breathed life into him and stirred him from the monotony of his life. She may not realize it now…or even ever…but she saved him first before he did anything for her… if only he could give her what she wanted.
Unbeknownst to her, The Watcher had already marked him-their duel had been decided the day he saved her from Galvesar. The hells were littered with that occurred eye…a medium this creature used to stain reality. Initially he was going to try and evade it as long as possible…but knowing what the was robbed from him stoked the smolders of his past fury into an inferno of true ire. This…Watcher…would inherit all the unbridled hate he had roiling in him now…And he would not let it so easily ******** with anything else he cherished. Levi wasn’t confident that he could escape with his life intact…but he would ensure that he not only set the foundation for those important to him to endure what was to come, but also cruelty educate the Omniarch that it did not orbit as far from mortality as it thought.
Levi’s jaw flexed, the tension of his jaws pressing lightly into the crook of Aella’s neck as the curtain of night was gently pulled over the horizon, chasing the light away from sculpting their bodies with shadow. “I’m sorry…” was all he said in return…words that spoke to just how much he didn’t want to leave her side when the day finally came. Gently, he pulled away from her, one hand combing up through her Raven locks that danced in the wind. He pressed gently into the back of her head, in hopes to bend it just forward enough to plant a small kiss atop her head before he placed his forehead on hers. This emotional s**t…he was horrible at this s**t.
~if only you were better
God he hated that little insidious voice in his head.
“It’s getting late….” Levi dared to cut into the silence, running an arm across his face to cleanse the tears from his broken visage, “you probably have had enough of this old man balling over the past…I-…well I was planning to give you something later, but it might as well be now…take a look at the sky Aella.”
The blanket of night was growing darker and darker, and the feint lights of distant stars twinkled to life as if woken by a celestial slumber….and then..between the faint glimmers…one star just blossomed…brighter, more brilliant than the rest. Levi birthed a star…just for her. “That star…that star is yours…and now that you own a star, you got to name it…” hopefully…hopefully this could distract her from this morbid scene. He knew Aella hated emotional s**t…so he could pull himself out of his own misery and anger long enough to enchant her with something-anything…so she doesn’t have to hurt like he does. ******** that was exhausting. Levi felt a shot of pain stab behind his eyes as he brought a celestial body into the cosmos…he had crafted it a while ago…but the spatial magic to thrust it into space wasn’t his forte. He needed an advil or some s**t.
She didn’t know what to say to his apology or how to reply to the gentle kiss he placed on her head. It lingered, the warmth of it pressing softly against her thoughts, but the words she needed didn’t come. Stormy eyes searched his face, desperate for answers, for a way to help or comfort him, but Levi’s pain was like the ocean: vast, deep, and untouchable. Every flicker of emotion he showed felt monumental, like a glimpse into something he kept tightly locked away. She wanted to hold him tighter, but he shifted and redirected her gaze upward instead.
At first, she didn’t understand what he wanted her to see. The night sky stretched endlessly above them, vast and speckled with faint stars. Her brow furrowed, unsure of what she was supposed to be looking for. But then, something happened—a light, faint at first, flickered into existence where there had been nothing. It was slow, almost hesitant, as if unsure of itself, but then it bloomed into a brilliant, unwavering radiance. A single, dazzling star.
It took a moment for the sight to register, for her to comprehend what had just unfolded before her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat, her lips parting slightly as realization dawned. Aella couldn’t look away, her wide eyes locked on the radiant point of light that seemed to outshine all others.
Her fingers, which had been gripping his shirt moments ago in desperation, slowly relaxed. They unfurled like petals, her touch softening as her tension ebbed away. She tilted her head back, her raven hair cascading over her shoulders, catching the gentle breeze that tugged at its strands. Awe painted her features as she stared up at the star, a radiant jewel nestled in the velvet sky. It was... hers. Levi had just created her a ******** star!
Aella’s breath hitched again, this time from the weight of what it meant. The soft hush of the waves filled the silence between them, but she barely heard it over the pounding of her heart. Her lips moved soundlessly for a moment, grasping for words that didn’t seem enough. Finally, she found her voice, shaky and tinged with disbelief. “You… made me a star?”
The words trembled as they escaped, steeped in pure wonder. She turned her gaze back to Levi, his silhouette still edged with a quiet, lingering pain even as he tried to offer her this moment of light. "Are... are you okay?" She asked hesitantly. What kind of drain did one feel after MAKING A ******** STAR?!
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